Why The Republican Party Died

The Republican National Committee Monday unveiled the results of
its Growth and Opportunity Project, the so-called "autopsy"
(their term) from its 2012 election collapse.

The results of the report are
pretty stunning. The committee assigned to figure out why the GOP
got blown out of the water in 2012 found that the party failed on
every level, from messaging and campaign mechanics to
fundraising, campaign finance, and even the primary process
itself.

Here are some of the key reasons why the GOP lost, according to
the report:

1.
Public perception: "The perception, revealed in polling, that
the GOP does not care about people is doing great harm to the
Party and its candidates on the federal level, especially in
presidential years. It is a major deficiency that must be
addressed." The report notes that public perception is at record
lows, and that young voters and minorities are increasingly
"rolling their eyes" at Republicans.

2. The Reagan
fetish: "At our
core, Republicans have comfortably remained the Party of Reagan
without figuring out what comes next. Ronald Reagan is a
Republican hero and role model who was first elected 33 years ago
— meaning no one under the age of 51 today was old enough to vote
for Reagan when he first ran for President. Our Party knows how
to appeal to older voters, but we have lost our way with younger
ones. We sound increasingly out of touch."

3.
Demographics: Unsurprisingly, the GOP recognizes that it
has to solve its problem with minority, women, and young voters
if it ever wants to win another presidential
election.

4. Digital
Campaigning: As we reported last week, the RNC
recognizes that it has been blowing it when it comes to campaign
technology and data mining, and has proposed a complete overhaul
of the party's digital campaign strategy going into
2016.

5. The
Primaries: The RNC recognizes that the party totally
lost control of the primary process in the 2012 election, and
proposes halving the number of primary debates and moving the
primary calendar up in 2016 to give the eventual primary nominee
more time in the general election.